Eugene - My Artistic Journey

[Sthingz]

Yo why you gotta break my heart like that lol. I am used to smudging irl that doing so digitally feels awkward. I'll keep working hard and referencing your work as well as that of others like snakker, lockenheim, pattu, etc. (you guys seem to have a way better grasp of shading than I do)

[mitsuki-youko]

Awe haha you can keep smudging if you want but imo its harder to use XD

(you guys seem to have a way better grasp of shading than I do)

I think your shadings are pretty good as well

[battledragon78]

Keep going you are doing great !

One thing I learned and I can suggest you about shadow, is to observe real situation. Shadow I think is t easiest to study since you can easily find it anywhere standing still object projecting shadow and you can take your time to observe any detail (like weather condition, source of light distance and intensity etc) .

[Sthingz]

I will definitely try this. Thank you!

[Sthingz]

Hello fellow artists! It has been a while, about a month, since I last posted. I have been solely practicing shading. What a journey! Fun albeit hard. I have watched lots of videos and compiled them into a single playlist (linked at the bottom of this post - I hope y'all enjoy it). I think I understand the concept, but its application is something else. Gotta keep practicing!

Gesture Drawing:

Shaded Fruit:

Digitally Rendered Portraits:

Shading on Paper: (please excuse the smudging from when I close my sketchbook)

Key Takeaways:

• Every object has its own local value, that is, not everything abides by the same "shading" pallet.
• Form shadow equals smooth gradation whereas cast shadow equals sharp gradation.
• Always start by separating the shadow family from the light family, then work on the details.
• Structure comes first, then depth and form.
• Shading "lines" should either wrap around the form or follow the light.

Next Weeks' Commitments:

• Conduct master studies (postponed from last time).
• Shade using the top of the pencil more.
• Take a break from ONLY shading portraits to shading the facial features separately as well as objects.
• Read George Bridgman's book on drawing heads.

YT "How to Shade" Playlist Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh33PBNTMQJd6NcJuwhJFSK5i-J32zFM9

[matthewwemes]

You've been super productive since you last posted, great work!

[mitsuki-youko]

heyoooo

nice work!! glad to see another post from u

[snakker]

Good job on these! I feel you, it’s hard

A few things I’ve learned along the way that I feel helped me a lot and hopefully help you as well

• graphite doesn’t get too dark, so have a light touch and slowly build up
• start by identifying the darkest regions and deciding what shadows to merge in order to help your composition, deciding early on this
• take a long long time on the block in, at that phase you can easily fix any proportions mistakes before committing to rendering
• fingers and stubs are great for smudging graphite

Cheers!

[Sthingz]

I am back for another art progress report! Thanks to everyone who checked out my last one. On that note, let me reply properly to those who commented:

@matthewwemes Thank you for your kind words. I try to draw as much as I can. Sometimes, I stay awake until 3 am (it is so hard to leave bed when it is time to wake up).
@mitsuki-youko Hiiii! Thanks for dropping by. I'll try to be more active w/ my posts. In fact, that will be one of my commitments this week.
@snakker Your pointers were great! I am now taking longer during the block-in stage and it has proved very helpful. I am still struggling w/ using the softer pencils as I tend to push too hard and, therefore, blend together 4B and 6B.

Here's what I have worked on for the past month (In advance, I apologize for the quality of some of my drawings. Whenever I close my sketchbook, the graphite tends to rub off easily):

Gesture Drawings (2 minutes):

Digitally Shaded Drawings:

Traditionally Shaded Drawings:

Key Takeaways:

• Either shade in one direction or follow the shape of the object for best results.
• It is okay to be messy when sketching. Just light it down when moving on to the block-in stage.
• Being "angular" in the initial drawing stage is perfectly fine. Worry about details later!
• The eye is probably the most complex facial feature to render by itself, but in a portrait drawing the eye can be greatly simplified.
• Hair is still a pain in the a$$ to render; I will need to study it next.

This Week's Commitments:

• Take photos of my work right after I finish them to avoid messy photos (I don't want to rip off the pages or stick something in between them as the very fact that graphite is messy helps me avoid being a perfectionist)
• Post the results of my work every week, not every month. Practice is great, but practice with feedback is the key to improving.
• Review the anatomy of the ear and render one.
• Learn about the subtle differences b/w a male's head and a female's head from Loomis.

[Pattu_w]

Man, you nailed those eye studies, the look really good!

[mitsuki-youko]

noice! these studies b lookin great!

[Sthingz]

As promised, imma start making a habit of posting more regularly. Today, I practiced shading ears. I gotta say, it is quite difficult to render them. Once I block in the shadows, getting the half-tones in the light side gets really difficult. Perhaps I need to go darker with my shadows?

[mitsuki-youko]

nice studies!
For the first one, the earlobe is a bit narrow/small. you could use liquify and drag the earlobe part slightly to the left and slightly down i think.

[Sthingz]

You are right! I totally forgot about that tool. Thanks for the feedback @mitsuki-youko .

[Sthingz]

I followed @mitsuki-youko suggestion and fixed the ear lobe in my digitally rendered painting. It does look better (and more accurate to the ref).

I drew 5 gesture drawing poses to get warmed up.

I then shaded an apple from ref. The first photo is how it ended up looking on paper and the second is after I imported it to Procreate and did some edits.

Please let me know what I can do to improve my shading. I believe I am now truly beginning to separate the shadow family from the light family but the subtleties kill me lol.

[Pattu_w]

I feel like the terminator line could be a tad darker, on the reference, it looks almost as dark as the shadow being projected.

[snakker]

hey there, nice work, the digital ear I feel looks good. I think the difficulty stems more in how you approach the edges. Sharp vs smooth edges. I think the picture you use as reference for that digital ear is very good to study the form. Note for example the roots of the antehelix, one is in light and then there's a sharp edge as we see shadow beneath.

The way you rendered it, it looks thicker than it actually is as you gave it a lighter shadow under a highlight. Also, the highlight on the body of the antehelix is sharply demarcated among two shadow areas and another sharply demarcated, thin dark shadow which makes the rendering seem a bit uneven there and at the same time makes the helix look inflated and making a tight notch with the antehelix

As for the apple, I think you are better served with a different light angle to practice the shading, especially in graphite as the very dark shadows are hard to render in graphite - I feel even a 10B pencil struggles - maybe combining with charcoal or a charcoal oil pencil

cheers

[mitsuki-youko]

noice! these be lookin great!

With the apple, i think your darks should be darker and lights should be brighter and there should be a bit more of a gradual gradient imo

i might be able to record myself doing a study for u later

[Sthingz]

Thanks so much for the feedback, I really, really appreciate it .

@Pattu_w and @mitsuki-youko, I will attempt drawing the apple once more. What I am hearing from y'all is that I need to make the terminator darker and increase the contrast between the light and shadow family, respectively. I will keep in mind @snakker ‘s observation about the limitations of graphite in respect to how dark I can make my shadows - I may just need to make everything lighter. Btw, @mitsuki-youko I'll take you on that offer for the shading demo but please don't feel obliged to do it.

@snakker, I have attached said ref below alongside my drawing with a couple of annotations. I think I understand what you are getting at in the first paragraph but would you mind elaborating on what you are trying to say in the second one? You are correct, the antihelix and helix look abnormally thick. What steps can I take to fix this on my second attempt tomorrow?

[mitsuki-youko]

Btw, @mitsuki-youko I'll take you on that offer for the shading demo but please don't feel obliged to do it.

Happy to do it!

tho dayum... that apple was hard to shade LMAO took me an hour real time.. the vid here is on 4x speed:

If its blurry thats cus youtube high def is still loading (since i just posted the vid - give it like 30 mins and it should be all clear)

And here's the result (if you squint it looks "good enough" lol):

TLDR its painting, repainting, repainting again, and repainting some more XD